My monthly fatloss progress report....

Today's Post:  Monday, 6-18-2012

This month’s report is a mixed review.

1.  First, I’d hoped the five new things I did or kept doing over the month since last time would help me lose a pound or two.  And, hopefully, they would help me lose one or two quarter of an inches more on my waist to add to the three quarters of an inch I lost the month before. 

But instead I gained a half pound which wasn’t too bad -- but gained back a half to three quarters of an inch on my waist which was much more disappointing.

2.  The better news is that I DID do the five new things consistently over the month since last time that I’d hoped would help me lose a pound or two, etc.

One. I ate no almond butter in my after dinner snack after eating nearly enough of it to make a pound per month difference in my fat level, about 3500 calories a month.

Two. I did run the inexpensive foot powered wheel while reading on evenings and weekends for about a total of 3 hours a week.  If that burns 150 calories an hour or about half what walking would, that could lose a half pound as that equals 1800 calories for the month.

Three.  I did well several times in my strength training a few times each week at making a strong enough effort to lift a bit more or  do more repetitions that I likely did release extra growth hormone and might have gained a bit of muscle. 

Four.  I did successfully add a second vegetable-only for lunch semi-fast each week without any noticeable problems or too much hunger.  If I’d done this by itself it could have cut about 920 calories each month including last month – enough to lose about a quarter pound. (During the last month, though, I had a couple of extra dark chocolate bars one on each of two Saturdays which added about 660 calories and likely left me with only a 260 calorie drop.  Over a couple of years that will add up to 7 pounds even with the dark chocolate.  But for just one month, it’s closer to zero.

Five.  I did eat a bit of raw broccoli florets almost every evening at my after dinner snack and did not overdo the nonfat cottage cheese or Irish cheese or no sugar apple sauce.  So my record doesn’t show I ate too many calories to compensate for not eating almond butter.  (Eating the raw broccoli florets almost every evening instead of just sometimes, helped do that.)

3.  So how did I go from losing 3 pounds without most of these efforts and gaining a half pound with them?

Apparently the persistent and many times a day bad cough I had, to clear my lungs, due to the got a severe cold I got 3 weeks before my monthly Saturday measurement on 5-19 last month, must have burned an enormous amount of calories

Month before last I didn’t do most of the things on this month’s list AND did less of my regular exercise to avoid making my cold better instead of worse.

Apparently I exercised a lot MORE during those three weeks by coughing so horribly much and hard.  I must have burned at least an extra 14,000 calories in those 3 weeks from coughing based on the math I know. In fact, it might have been closer to 21,000 calories.  It was vigorous enough, I may have added some muscle in my core muscles that contracted when I coughed.

In short, had I not added all the new things I did this month, I might have gained 2 or 3 pounds this month instead of just a half a pound.

4.  But what more do I need to do to add muscle and lose fat enough to restart losing a pound or so each month on the scale and more fat than that too?

a)  I came up with a plan to cut back on red wine with dinner just a bit.  I may or may not be able to maintain it.  But the one day last week I tried it, it did work.  That will lose a pound or two if I do it for a month which I’ll keep off if I maintain the cut-back after that.

b) It looks like I need to do enough more strenuous strength training and/or with heavier weights to add muscle and maybe also add other things to boost my level of growth hormone. 

I’ll try to do a bit more now and at least keep up the efforts I’ve been making.

Once the summer heat leaves in the mid to late fall, I may make more progress.

And, once I get a bit more control over my schedule, I’ve a plan to go to the gym one night a week for access to heavier weights which may help, particularly with adding muscle to my legs.

Also, once I can afford it, I may be able to take more of the amino acid supplements known to boost growth hormone release.

This category of actions is important since if I can gain 5 pounds of muscle, I’ll lose 15 pounds of fat by eating the same.  Even better, that will lose some belly fat out of that 15 pounds of fat.  And the 10 pounds net lost on the scale will get me back below my goal weight.

What I hope to get to is to double that muscle gain and gain 10 pounds of muscle eventually.  That would lose a total of 30 pounds of fat and I’d finally lose my fat belly if I can lose that much fat. 

c)  I’ll keep adding small strategies to cut calories as I find an opportunity to do so.  At this point that may add a pound or two loss per year of fat.  That’s not a lot but far better than nothing,  And, I have two or three I have in mind adding.

d)  I’ll keep up the efforts I’m already making.

e)  I also hope to add an exerciser I can use at work.  Since I’ve not been able to find what I need, I may have to find a company to make it.  (I know a design that will work and recently found out it wasn’t patentable when it first was put into volume use.)

I found out that having such an exerciser at work would improve my memory and mental sharpness on the days I used it.  I posted that news last month!

At my new job I do have enough more knee room under my desk, I'd known I might be able to get one of the tiny bicycle style exercisers and begin using that a few hours a day.  (They are just pedals and a support stand available online for about $150.  Not fancy; but an extra 200 calories a day on it will trim off some fat.)

And, it seemed silly not to try it already for that extra fat loss. But when I got the news it would improve me mentally too, I decided to try to implement it soon.

Then I realized I could go to the local sporting goods store to see if they had such an exerciser.  That way if I tried it and it didn't work out right away, I could return it.  The news then got better.  I asked and they would refund my money if the exerciser turned out right away not to be usable.  But even better, instead of $150, it only cost $50!

I did set that up and found that at work even with the extra knee room it was a bit too hard to stay on it and it took double the knee room I’d have needed at my last job and fifty percent more than I have now.  I do now use it at home.

But the big payoff and results will be when I can get one that I can use at work.  Even 20 hours a week for 150 calories per hour is about 3 and a half pounds of fat loss per month until my excess fat is mostly gone.

I'll let you know how I do on what I can already do and when and if I can add these other things.